Comcast VOIP Interrogated by FCC

The Federal Communications Commission is investigating whether Comcast may be giving preferential treatment to its own VOIP (voice over IP) service, which is called Digital Voice (CDV). The general complaint is that a network management system now in place at Comcast is giving priority to their VOIP service over competitor services like Skype and Vonage. The perceived result being the competing services quality is being degraded.

The FCC sent a letter to Comcast on January 17th asking them to justify this disparate treatment of their VOIP service, as compared to other VOIP providers on their network. In the Ars Technica article "Comcast defends itself against FCC's VOIP Probe", Comcast Vice President Kathryn A. Zachem is quoted writing back to the FCC "CDV is a service separate from Comcast's HSI service; it does not run over Comcast's HSI service". The response letter from Comcast to the FCC closed with "We hope this letter clarifies the 'apparent discrepancy' you perceived."

The issue currently sits with the FCC, stay tuned for more information!